The Neuropsychology Service at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center serves as the primary training site for all fellows. Outpatients make up the bulk of referrals, though inpatients are occasionally seen. Referrals involve a wide variety of patient populations, including dementia, movement disorders, multiple sclerosis, traumatic brain injury, stroke, epilepsy, and neuro-oncology.
In addition to seeing patients through the general outpatient neurology clinic with a variety of conditions including concussion, traumatic brain injuries, cerebrovascular accidents/stroke, and multiple sclerosis, fellows will rotate in the following specialty clinics:
Curriculum Overview
| Presurgical Movement Disorders Evaluations: Fellows will evaluate patients with movement disorders as part of pre-surgical workups for Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS), Gamma Knife surgery, and select focused ultrasound (FUS) procedures for patients with Parkinson’s disease, essential tremor, and dystonia syndromes. Fellows will participate in the bimonthly multidisciplinary case conference and, if interested, the monthly Huntington’s Disease Multidisciplinary Clinic at Miller Plaza. |
| Presurgical Epilepsy Evaluations: This rotation involves Phase I neuropsychological assessments for epilepsy surgery candidates. Fellows will present findings at bimonthly Comprehensive Epilepsy Center case conferences. Additional opportunities include conducting post-operative evaluations, assisting with Wada testing, and evaluating non-surgical epilepsy patients referred for various clinical reasons. |
| GeriNeuro & Cognitive Disorders Rotation: This rotation focuses primarily on dementia evaluations, with the majority of patients being older adults. This rotation provides exposure to younger-onset neurodegenerative syndromes, including atypical presentations of Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal dementia syndromes. A central focus of this experience is the development of advanced skill in differential diagnosis. |
| Inpatient ABI Rotation: Fellows may participate in a multidisciplinary treatment team within the inpatient rehabilitation unit. This rotation primarily occurs on the Acquired Brain Injury Unit and emphasizes brief cognitive and emotional screening. It also includes providing education to caregivers and staff about the nature and implications of cognitive deficits. Although this is not a cognitive rehabilitation rotation, fellows play an important role in the rehabilitation process by delivering same-day feedback to patients, caregivers, and the treatment team to inform ongoing treatment planning. |
| Neuro-Oncology Rotation: This rotation provides fellows with specialized training in the neuropsychological assessment of individuals with known structural brain lesions, including primary and metastatic brain tumors. Based at the AHWFB Comprehensive Cancer Center, this experience includes presurgical cognitive screenings to inform treatment planning, as well as post-treatment and longitudinal evaluations to monitor cognitive, behavioral, emotional, and functional outcomes over time. The patient population is medically complex, and the rotation emphasizes interdisciplinary collaboration. |
| HOBSCOTCH: Postdoctoral fellows with an interest in cognitive remediation may have the opportunity to serve as a Cognitive Coach for adults with epilepsy through the HOBSCOTCH (HOme Based Self-management and COgnitive Training CHanges lives) program. This intervention targets cognitive dysfunction using Problem Solving Therapy and cognitive remediation strategies. The typical caseload of adult fellows is 3-4 cases per week with some psychometry support. Due to the variety of offerings, clinical opportunities range from 1-hour screenings to 4- or 6-hour comprehensive evaluations. All fellows provide consultation to referral sources, deliver feedback to patients and families, and participate in intervention planning and monitoring when appropriate. |
The typical caseload of adult fellows is approximately 4-5 cases per week, with some psychometry support. Due to the variety of offerings, clinical opportunities range from 1-hour screenings for CNS tumors to 4-hour DBS surgery evaluations, to 6-hour epilepsy surgery and evaluations. All fellows provide consultation to referral sources, feedback with patients and families, and where appropriate, participate in intervention planning and monitoring as part of their duties.
Research Opportunities
Our program emphasizes the scientist-practitioner model, thus fellows are expected to be engaged in both clinical activity and research. The extent of involvement in research is tailored to each fellow’s interests and career goals, though within the two-year fellowship all fellows are expected at minimum to be involved in the development and preparation of at least one report suitable for publication based on their involvement in a research project under the guidance of one of the faculty. Fellow involvement in research may take several forms, depending on the interests of the fellow and faculty, available projects and data sets, as well as projects in development.
Our research primarily focuses on epilepsy, mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease, brain tumors, and traumatic brain injury. Studies include evaluation of cognitive and emotional functioning, both pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions, lifestyle-type interventions, and assessment of predictors of cognitive outcome, treatment-related cognitive dysfunction, and drug-related clinical trials.
Conferences and Didactics
Weekly didactic opportunities are plentiful and include:
- Neuropsychology Seminars
- Multidisciplinary Epilepsy Surgery Case Conference
- Multidisciplinary DBS Case Conference
- Multidisciplinary Tumor Boards and monthly Psychometry Meetings.
- Neurology Department Grand Rounds are held twice monthly.
Elective didactics include:
- Epilepsy Journal Club
- Psychiatry Department Grand Rounds
- Brain Cutting
- Radiology Grand Rounds
- Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC) Consensus meetings
- Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Grand Rounds.
- Cancer and Cognition Research Meetings